Boom
by Klei
Summary: Since he was a child, America had always loved explosions... England didn't worry so much about it until it started to get dangerous.  No official pairings, though it can be seen as England/America if you want.  Character and civilian deaths.


**Boom

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**A/N**

**I got bored and felt like watching stuff blow up on youtube. Then I decided to write a Hetalia fanfiction. Here it is, my first APH story. Yay? XD Sort of dark… I dunno. OOCness abounds, obviously.  


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England never thought there was any cause for concern. It was such a simple little quirk, after all. To be so fascinated by something so simple… Weren't all children like that?

It had all started during a picnic at the stream. "England, that bird looks hungry," America had said, frowning at a pigeon across the water.

"Leave it alone, it's a bird; they can find food on their own."

"But what if this one can't?" the young nation whined.

Arthur sighed, broke off a piece of his own biscuit, and handed it to America, convinced the child was just trying to get out of eating. "Here, feed it this."

"Okay! Thank you, England!" the boy replied, tossing it over to the pigeon. It didn't reach its destination, though, and instead landed in the stream with a 'plop.' The child squealed.

"Now, now, look, the bird got to it," England said, pointing to the bird, which had just plucked the food out of the water. "What are you upset about?"

"That was amazing! Did you see what happened when it landed in the water?" America said enthusiastically.

"Wh-what?"

To demonstrate, Alfred took what was left of his biscuit and tossed it into the water.

"Hey, that's-" Arthur began, somewhat upset by the way the food he had cooked was so carelessly tossed away.

"Did you see what the water did? It was all, 'sploosh!' " America chirped.

England blinked. "You mean that splash?"

"Yeah! The way the water came up and made that noise…" he mused, taking a nearby rock and plopping it into the water. "That one wasn't as big."

"Well, if you drop it gently, the splash will be smaller," England provided, smiling somewhat at the innocence of the whole scene.

This, of course, prompted the boy to start slamming rocks into the water, laughing as he tried to make the biggest splashes he could. "Isn't this amazing, England?"

Arthur laughed along. "Be careful, alright? Don't hit anything but the water with those rocks."

"I won't!"

From then on, America had become almost addicted to the sight of things being blasted apart. England had become a little wary when the boy's fascination with splashes turned to a desire to bang rocks together until they broke apart, but still he decided to leave the boy be. He was a little boy, after all. It was just a showing of those 'violent urges' France had told him children so frequently possessed. Surely it was something Alfred would grow out of.

When America first took to using black powder to feed his obsession, England began to start truly worrying. Even after the nation gained its independence, Arthur couldn't help but still think of the boy as his little brother; his stupid, bratty, and annoying git of a brother, but his little brother nonetheless. Day after day Alfred would light the substance just for fun, injuring himself numerous times in the process.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself?" England asked one day as he helped nurse the boy back into shape.

"The explosions… They're really pretty. The smoke all goes up into the air and slowly fades out into nothing… You should see it some time, England!"

"I'll take your word for it."

The invention of dynamite didn't help, either.

"It's a huge flash of red, and then… BAM!" Alfred described giddily. "It's all, 'BOOM!' Then there's a lot of smoke and stuff."

England hesitated. "Right," he said, and went back to treating his little brother's burn for what seemed like the millionth time.

Even after an explosion that gave Alfred burns so bad they would have never healed on a normal human, he didn't stop blowing things up for the sake of it. It never mattered that he would frequently burn off half his hair, or temporarily blind himself. All that mattered was the explosion… Like a drug, only…

Only it could harm people other than just Alfred.

Like the atom bomb.

No matter how many times he told himself that it was in retaliation for Pearl Harbor, England couldn't help but remember the odd glint in the younger nation's eyes as he told Arthur about how upset he was that he didn't see the explosion.

"It must have been so beautiful…"

Somehow, England didn't think Japan would think the same way.

Not too long after that, Arthur found himself relieved that the United States had seen fit to start keeping an eye on Alfred to prevent him from blowing up anything else. He could tell it had to be difficult, though. At the World Conferences, America began to fidget a lot, fingers rapping against the table and body flinching every so often, like a man going through withdrawal. When other nations asked what was wrong, he simply shook his head. Eventually, people stopped asking.

Then, one month, the symptoms stopped. England smiled, figuring he must have finally gotten over it. It vanished when he learned that the country was simply using video games as an outlet. Nonetheless, it was far safer than real explosions, so Arthur didn't let it bother him. After all, America has seemed genuinely sorry when he and Japan finally got together and exchanged what seemed like hundreds of apologies for everything that had occurred between them after peace had finally been made. If modern technology could provide him with another means of satisfying his cravings, what was the harm?

When World War III rolled around, everyone was terrified, especially the defenseless countries with no access to nuclear power. There was an unspoken agreement not to use it, but what hasn't been spoken wasn't official. Arthur had, naturally, immediately taken America's side. Partially because it was a good idea to remain on the superpower's side, partially because he genuinely supported the cause and had a close relationship with the country, and partially because the last thing he wanted America to do was set off a chain reaction of nuclear attacks from one country to another that could result in the destruction of the planet.

"It's been forever since I've set off a real bomb…" America murmured, and England wasn't sure if it had been addressed to him, or if the nation was simply talking to himself.

Either way, it wasn't good.

"America, there are more than enough nuclear bombs to destroy the world several times over; you can't just set them off!" he had quickly responded. "Do you know how many people could die?"

"Y-yeah. I wasn't really going to do anything… It's just, well… Just in case, you know? I mean, if _they _strike first-"

"America, that war ended years ago. You have to let it go." Though they were no longer at each other's throats, there was still a tension between the States and the Middle East, especially since they'd developed nuclear weaponry. "Think of all the innocents there! You want to be a hero, right? Heroes don't slaughter people for their own amusement!"

"I _know, _England!" Alfred responded, exasperated.

A few years passed, the war having yet to cease.

"I'm proud of you, you know," England said, patting an exhausted America on the head. "I'm proud that you haven't done anything rash." Both of them had dark circles under their eyes, having gone a long time without a proper night of sleep. All the world was on its toes.

It didn't last.

Nobody knew who fired the first shot. For all England knew, America had finally lost control and done it. Whoever it was didn't matter, though. What did matter was that the entire planet was terrified for their lives as one day nuclear missiles started firing off from a variety of different countries. Millions of people died that day; if they were lucky, it would be from the bomb itself, rather than the horrible radiation that was spreading across the globe like wildfire.

Then, not twenty-four hours after it began, it was over.

When the smoke cleared, every country was either dead or suffering from terrible weakness as a result of the radiation in their land.

"A-america?" England wheezed, determined to know if his little brother had made it. He was in pain, but not to the point where he couldn't travel… Arthur knew he was one of the lucky ones.

"Y-yeah, England?" the States replied, unable to get out of the hospital bed.

"You alright?"

"I've been better," America groaned.

"Ssh, don't talk so much." As it was, the only reason they weren't being detained by their own governments 'for their own safety' was because they couldn't die until their last citizen was wiped out. That, and the chaos left them powerless to stop them. "Not if it hurts you."

"They bombed my capital… I don't have too much longer," America replied weakly. "This is one of the last open hospitals in my country. Everyone's evacuating to the northern end of Canada. Mattie didn't get hit too bad… He'll make it."

"Don't talk like that! What about Alaska and Hawaii? They're off the mainland, right? As long as they're alright, you-"

"They got hit, too. I don't even think the islands are intact anymore." Alfred took a deep breath. "I'm… I'm scared, England."

"It'll be okay, you're not gonna die... We'll get someone to stay, I promise!"

"Then they'd just die, too..."

England found himself close to tears. "You can't die on me, you git! Don't you dare!"

"Goodbye, Arthur." He passed out. Though he didn't want to leave his younger brother alone, England knew he had his own country to attend to. Perhaps, if he pulled some strings, he could do something to keep the boy alive… It didn't matter that he wasn't quite right in the head. Alfred was his little brother. The day the boy had put a hand on his shoulder and asked him, 'Are you okay?' he'd sworn to keep him safe.

Nobody was sure who started firing the next series of missiles. All anyone knew was that several more countries had been taken out. England was among one of those countries.

Somewhere else, Alfred managed to drag himself out of bed long enough to see a missile in the sky. Briefly, he wondered how large of an explosion it would make.

Indeed, the brief flash before the darkness was a glorious sight.

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**A/N**

**I have no idea as to what I've just written. It's late at night and… Yeah. Everyone on the planet dies. The countries of the Earth are no more. The end. They all lived- well, never mind. They didn't. As for the whole war thing, I have very little faith in humanity. (Just kidding, it's just for the sake of the story.) I intentionally avoided the reason for the war, as well as who nuked who first. The Middle East thing is Alfred's personal mistrust. As for me, I wish we could all just stop pointing fingers and get along, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon. Anyway, hope this wasn't a total fail. I haven't seen anything like this before, so if it's somehow similar to another story just give me a link and I'll take this down. I hope I'm not offending anyone, somehow... Though I guess if you're offended, Hetalia is the wrong anime for you, anyway. XD  
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…**This story is the result of me having a bad day. XD Is it crap? Of course it is. I put it together in what, a half an hour? Maybe a whole hour max?**


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